What if "not ready to sell" wasn't the end of the conversation? One of the things we've been working on at Five Experts is a different path to ownership, for a specific kind of searcher and a specific kind of business owner. We call it Operator-to-Owner. There are owners beginning to think about succession who aren't ready for a traditional sale today. And there are experienced operators searching for a company to own who could bring real value to that business well before a transaction. In the right situation, those two timelines come together. The future buyer enters the company as an operator first, in a real seat, on a market salary. The owner gets time to work alongside a potential successor. The operator learns the business from the inside. And when the fit is right, the relationship progresses toward an acquisition on terms agreed up front. Searchers we work with have stepped into companies that were never listed for sale; this is the path that gets them there. It won't be right for every owner or every searcher, and we're not suggesting that joining Five Experts means an Operator-to-Owner opportunity is waiting for you. We're building the owner and advisor relationships required to develop these opportunities, while identifying searchers for whom this path genuinely makes sense. So I'm curious about one thing: if you're actively searching today and the right business came along, would you consider operating it before you owned it? If yes, send me a message. I'd like to learn what you're looking for. And if you're an advisor who knows owners in exactly that not-ready spot, I'd especially like to hear from you.